"I was born with the devil in me... I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet can help the inspiration to sing."

- H. H. Holmes, Holmes' Own Story (Larson, 109)

The Castle

There were over 60 rooms in the house and 51 doors that were oddly places in walls, ceilings, and floors. Holmes acted as his own designer and architect for the castle and he personally supervised the construction. To avoid suspicion about the odd building style, all of the construction crews were quickly hired and fired, without pay. The first floor of the building housed rented stores and shops, giving the building a normal exterior look. The upper floors were converted into a hotel with spacious living quarters. Holmes had an office on the second floor, but most of the rooms were to be used for “guests.”

The Castle's Features

When the hotel was examined, they found that many rooms featured different torture techniques like:

Asphyxiation chambers – Where his victims were suffocated with gas.

Iron plates – Prevented the guests from being able to beat their way out from the rooms of the hotel and kept noise at a minimum.

Blowtorch – Gas driven fire blowtorches were fixed into the walls in order to burn and torture the victim to death.

Dissecting table – Used to slowly remove body parts while the victim was still alive or dead; Through the connections he had gained in medical school, he sold skeletons and organs with little difficulty.

Crematory – Used to burn and char bodies while alive or dead.

Acid vats – Bodies could be conveniently disposed of by dissolving the flesh into acid.

Alarms – The rooms all had alarms that buzzed in Holmes’ office if a victim attempted to escape.

Quote/Excerpt Explanation

I chose the opening quote because it reflected Holmes' character since it shines a light on his probable Antisocial Personality Disorder. He understood what he was doing, but did not concern himself with the consequences of murder. Actually, the fact that Holmes was an intelligent man and did not care for what was right or wrong, revealed just how terrifying he was. It really highlighted the fact that Holmes was one of the first American sociopaths because of the conservative time period he was in.